The present invention relates to a device for cleaning a milking system, with an air separator, a rinse reservoir, a suction line that leads from the rinse reservoir to the air separator through a milking station, and a pressure line that leads from the air separator to the rinse reservoir, with the top of the air separator communicating with a vacuum line and the bottom communicating with the pressure line through a conveyor pump and with a shut-off valve in the section of the suction line between the rinse reservoir and the milking station.
A device of this type is known, for example, from German Pat. No. 2 913 928. Rinsing is initiated at intervals, parallel to a suction line that extends into the rinse by means of an air-suctioning connection with an aperture that can be opened and closed with a valve that floats on the rinse. Rinse is suctioned through the suction line as long as the air-suctioning connection remains closed. When the level of rinse in the rinse reservoir drops, the air-suctioning connection is eventually released, and air is suctioned through the suction line until the reservoir fills up with rinse coming from the pressure line again and the valve closes the air-suctioning connection.
There are certain drawbacks to the known device. Admitting air into the suction line extensively decreases the vacuum in it, and the vacuum must be reestablished before suction can be initiated again. Thus, the next rinsing cycle cannot be commenced automatically. Also, the incoming air undesirably cools down the heated rinse to the detriment of effective cleaning. Furthermore, since the volume of rinse suctioned in per rinsing interval depends on the capacity of the rinse reservoir and how full it is, the air separator can become overloaded if the conveyor pump has too low an output to convey the intermittently occurring rinse volume rapidly enough.